Eurovision Song Contest 2012
The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 was the 31st annual Eurovision Song Contest. Following Simone's win at the 2011 Contest, the festival was brought to Herning, Denmark. The two semi-finals were held on 22 and 24 May 2012, and the final was held on 26 May 2012 at the Jyske Bank Boxen Arena. Forty-one countries announced their participation in the contest, with Italy returning to the contest after a one-year absence. The design of the contest was built around the slogan, "Love the Music". The voting system remained the same as previous contests in which the voting lines would open at the beginning of all the shows, instead of just a 15-minute televoting window at the end of the performances which was last used in the 2007 Contest in Malmo, Sweden. Once again, each country's votes were decided by a 50:50 system, which is a split between the televoting results and national juries in all of the 41 participating countries. The contest was won by singer Sirusho from Armenia with the song "PreGomesh" which marks the first win by the nation since their debut. "PreGomesh" received 273 total points, which was 63 points ahead of runners-up, Ukraine with 210 points. Greece finished in 3rd place, while fourth place went to Russia. Completing the top 5 was Norway with 143 points. Both Italy and the United Kingdom were the only members of the "Big 5" to finish in the top 10, in 6th and 8th place respectively. France followed closely behind in 13th place but both Germany and Spain finished at the bottom of the scoreboard in 24th and 26th (last) respectively. Participating countries On 17 January 2012, the EBU announced that fourty-one countries would take part in the 2012 contest. The 31st edition saw the return of Italy, who took a one-year break due to dissapointing results in the contest since their original return (the biggest reason being two consecutive last-place finishes). 'Returning artists' Six artists returned in this year's contest. Eleftheria Eleftheriou for Greece, previously participated in the 2005 Contest with the song "Tables Are Turning" which finised 11th with 110 points. Sirusho has previously competed twice in the contest for Armenia, her first was in 2008 with the song "I Like It" and that ended the final evening in 17th place and she once again competed in 2009 and finished 10th with the song, "Qele, Qele". Another returning artist was Dima Bilan, who finished third in the 2004 contest with "Never Let Me Go" and Zdob si Zdub for Moldova competed in the 2006 Contest and ultimately finished 18th with 45 points in the final. Nikki Jamal for Azerbaijan previously competed as duo, Ell & Nikki in the 2009 edition and finished 8th. Slovenia's representative, Nika Zorjan competed with the song, "Cas za nas" in 2008 but didn't qualify for the final, finishing 12th in the first semi-final. 'Semi-finals' 'Semi-final 1' Denmark, France and Spain voted in this semi-final. 'Split jury/televoting results' Semi-final 2 Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom voted in this semi-final. 'Split jury/televoting results' 'Final' 'Split jury/televoting results' Returning artists Other awards 'Marcel Bezençon Awards' 'OGAE' Scoreboards 'Final' '12 points' Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the final.